About the data
The WBA Gender Benchmark measures and ranks the world's most influential companies on their efforts to advance gender equality and women's empowerment, tracking how companies integrate gender across their governance and strategy, promote fair representation at all levels of leadership, close the gender pay gap, support workers' health and well-being, prevent violence and harassment, and drive gender equality through their supply chains and communities. The 2026 edition assessed 105 companies across two sectors identified as having a particularly significant impact on gender equality: apparel, and food and agriculture. Companies were scored on 91 elements across six measurement areas: governance and strategy, representation, compensation and benefits, health and well-being, violence and harassment, and marketplace and community. The benchmark is designed to incentivise companies to move beyond policy commitments and take concrete, measurable action to respect and promote gender equality throughout their full value chains, keeping women workers' rights and human rights at its core. More information can be found here.
Methodology
A company committed to gender equality respects employees’ reproductive rights and
their right to family life as well as women employees’ maternal health needs to physically recover from
childbirth. In accordance with the ILO convention, it offers paid (at least 2/3 of full salary) primary
carer/ maternity leave of at least 14 weeks and at least 2 weeks of secondary carer/paternity leave
even in locations/countries where it is not mandated by law. Unpaid leave contributes to the gender
pay gap and lower levels of women’s workforce participation and senior leadership representation. A
company that provides such paid leave can be rewarded with higher levels of staff recruitment and
retention as well as health benefits for staff and society as a whole.
Research Guidance
1\.Must be a global / group-level policy.
2\.Must be at least 2/3 paid.
3\.Points are awarded even if there is a seniority clause (i.e. with the company for minimum one year), because we cannot be sure of the seniority clauses in all the companies' policies, so we don't want to penalise those companies who are sharing it publicly.
Points are awarded only if company discloses that the leave is "at least" or "more than" 2 weeks as this is the language of ILO recommendation. While the number of weeks disclosed by the company is captured by our research, points are not awarded if the disclosure reads "up to".
their right to family life as well as women employees’ maternal health needs to physically recover from
childbirth. In accordance with the ILO convention, it offers paid (at least 2/3 of full salary) primary
carer/ maternity leave of at least 14 weeks and at least 2 weeks of secondary carer/paternity leave
even in locations/countries where it is not mandated by law. Unpaid leave contributes to the gender
pay gap and lower levels of women’s workforce participation and senior leadership representation. A
company that provides such paid leave can be rewarded with higher levels of staff recruitment and
retention as well as health benefits for staff and society as a whole.
Research Guidance
1\.Must be a global / group-level policy.
2\.Must be at least 2/3 paid.
3\.Points are awarded even if there is a seniority clause (i.e. with the company for minimum one year), because we cannot be sure of the seniority clauses in all the companies' policies, so we don't want to penalise those companies who are sharing it publicly.
Points are awarded only if company discloses that the leave is "at least" or "more than" 2 weeks as this is the language of ILO recommendation. While the number of weeks disclosed by the company is captured by our research, points are not awarded if the disclosure reads "up to".
License
Topics
Framework Mappings
Value Type
Category
Options
Yes
No
Assessment
Steward Assessed
Report Type
Aggregate Data Report